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How long from Manhattan and Brooklyn to JFK?

I will be going from Grand Central to JFK on Saturday. Looks like the most direct way is to take the 6 to the E and then the E to the airtrain. I have done that in the past but can't remember how long it took. The MTA trip planner tells me to take the 7 to LIRR or to take the 4 to the A. Any idea why they are giving me those routes when the 6 to the E seems the most straightforward? How long should I allow (including Airtrain)?

At the same time my daughter will be taking the subway from Park Slope - about how long does that take. She's lived in Brooklyn for a couple years but has never taken the subway to JFK.

In normal circumstances, you must allow 90 minutes to get to JFK via the E train and Airtrain, but it can be done faster if you're lucky. Having said that, lately the E train has NOT been running on the weekends from Manhattan because of construction.

So you will need to do some more research on the MTA web site. If you have to take a different train to Queens and then connect to the E somehow, that could take longer, and the F train does NOT leave from the same station as the E any longer, nor does the R train.

If it were me, I'd spend the extra $5 and take the airport bus from Grand Central. That's so much easier, and I can say from experience that the airport bus much more often takes an hour instead of 90 minutes, though how long will depend entirely on which terminal you are at and how many stops the bus makes along the way. That can easily turn a 60-minute trip into a 90-minute trip.

From Park Slope, I have absolutely no idea. The E train doesn't go through Brooklyn, so your daughter will have to get to either the A train (to Howard Beach) or the J or Z train, which also go into Jamaica. I never take any of those trains, particularly in Brooklyn, so I have no idea where she would transfer.